Pakistan archbishop on ‘sabbatical’ after allegations of abuse, fraud

Archbishop Sebastian Shaw, Archbishop of Lahore, Pakistan. / Credit: Foreign and Commonwealth Office, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Rome Newsroom, Aug 17, 2024 / 10:51 am (CNA).

Archbishop Sebastian Shaw, O.F.M., has been replaced as administrator of the Archdiocese of Lahore, Pakistan, the diocese’s vicar general announced Thursday.

According to reports, Shaw has faced allegations of sexual abuse and financial fraud, but his future remains unclear amid a lack of official information about his removal and the reasons behind it.

Father Asif Sardar announced at Mass in the Cathedral of Lahore on Aug. 15 that Archbishop Benny Mario Travas of Karachi will take over as apostolic administrator of the archdiocese in northeast Pakistan while Shaw goes “on a sabbatical,” UCA News reported.

The vicar general did not say why the 66-year-old archbishop was leaving in his announcement on the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary at Sacred Heart Cathedral.

Shaw — who led Pakistan’s largest archdiocese, with over half a million Catholics, since 2013 — has been accused of sexual abuse and of selling church properties and giving the money to his brother and nephew, UCA News reported.

Church officials in Lahore did not respond to UCA News’ request for comment on Shaw’s replacement,  while the president of the Catholic bishops’ conference of Pakistan, Bishop Samson Shukardin of Hyderabad, said he did not have any official information and was “not sure what the status of the Archbishop Shaw will be now,” the Catholic news website wrote.

Unusually, the Vatican has also yet to publicize the archbishop’s removal from archdiocesan administration.

A Christian-run YouTube channel, “National News Nama,” claimed in July that Shaw had been suspended due to financial irregularities and would be “permanently settling in the U.S.”

The YouTube channel’s director, Francis Sodagar, told UCA News that he had access to “leaked information” about Shaw.

Shaw was born in the small village of Padri Jo Goth in southeastern Pakistan in 1957. After joining the Order of Friars Minor, he was ordained a priest of Lahore in 1991.

He was appointed auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Lahore in 2009, and in 2013 he was named Lahore’s archbishop.

Shaw has a master’s degree in guidance and counseling from De La Salle University in Manila, Philippines.